e a mistake in taste.

The coarser work in wool on cushions, curtains, and thick white numdahs is
most effective and cheap.

Curiously enough, the best of these numdahs (which make capital rugs or
bath blankets) are made in Yarkand; and Stein, in his _Sand-Buried Cities
of Kotan_, found in ancient documents, of the third century or so, "the
earliest mention of the felt-rugs or 'numdahs' so familiar to Anglo-Indian
use, which to this day form a special product of Kotan home industry, and
of which large consignments are annually exported to Ladak and Kashmir."

The manufacture of carpets is receiving attention, and Messrs. Mitchell
own a large carpet factory. Designs and colours are good, but the prices
are not low enough to enable them to compete with the cheap Indian makes;
nor, I make bold to say, is the quality such as to justify high prices.
The shop of Mohamed Jan is well worth a visit, for three good
reasons--first, because his Oriental carpets from Penjdeh and Khiva are of
the best; second, because his house is one of the first specimens of a
high-class native dwelling existing; and third, because he never worries
his customers nor touts for orders--but, then, he is a Persian, and not a
Kashmiri!

The famous shawls which fetched such prices in England in early Victorian
days are no longer valued, having suffered an eclipse similar to that
undergone by the pictures of certain early Victorian Royal Academicians,
and the loss of the shawl trade was a severe blow to Kashmir. With the
exception of occasional specimens of these shawls, which, however, can be
bought cheaper at sales in London, there are no _old_ embroideries to be
got.

The wood-carving industry, too, is quite modern; but, although of great
excellence and ingenuity in manipulation, it does not appeal to me, being
too florid and copious in its application of design. A restless confusion
of dragons from Leh, lotus from the Dal Lake, and the ever-present chenar
leaf, hobnob together with British--very British--crests and monograms on
the tops of tables and the seats of chairs--portions of the furniture that
should be left severely plain.

British taste is usually bad, and to it, and not to Kashmiri initiative,
must be ascribed the production of such exotic works as bellows
embellished with chaste designs of lotus-buds, and afternoon tea-tables
flaunting coats-of-arms (doubtless dating from the Conquest), beautifully
carved in high relief just where th